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Writing an article about a store visit isn’t something that we normally do around these here parts, but once in a while there is a reason to make an exception. Case in point? The guys that run Vinegar Syndrome have opened up a brick and mortar retail store called The Archive in Bridgeport, CT. Why does that matter to readers of this site? Because in an age where online sales seem to be killing
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The first, of what will hopefully be a recurring Five Points Festival kicked off yesterday at Pier 36 on the Lower East Side riverfront of New York City. The two day festival, curated by Clutter Magazine and presented Midtown Comics, “is a collision of toys, comics, and counterculture.” Unlike a regular comic or toy convention, Five Points focuses the more artisanal aspect of the toy and comic industry. As such, most of the attendees had a connection to indy or small press comics (though there were a few mainstreamers around too) and to the ‘designer toy’ industry.

Not only did this smaller scaled convention give fans a chance to interact with toy creators, artists, writers but it also gave them a chance to look for some exclusives, get items signed by comic and toy professionals, check out some amazing original art on display and peruse back issue vendors. On top of that, the outdoor area of the convention featured a half dozen food trucks and a selection of craft beers available for attendees over twenty-one. Hey, convention going
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Despite all the cosplay, movie stars, TV stars, toys, video games and other assorted stuff, comic books are what started all of this and comic books remain, for some of us at least, the most important part of an event like NYCC. As such, we’ve saved the best for last. All the big publishers are, as per the norm, setup in the main hall. Marvel had a lot going on this year, like they always do, promoting Black Panther and Doctor Strange in a big way this year.

Also in the main hall? Dark Horse, Dynamite, Oni, IDW, Image, 2000 A.D., and Archie! There was a lot of great stuff going on at the Archie booth, including a signing for the Archie Meets Ramones comic that came out a few weeks ago, complete with the requisite NYCC variant cover on sale! Alex Ross had a booth set up too, selling prints and other expensive but awesome paintings.

Everyone likes toys, right? Another big part of what makes NYCC such a rad event to go to are, yeah, the toys! While there are some dealers who peddle vintage stuff but a large part of the focus is on ‘the new stuff’ and the ‘stuff you want but can’t buy yet.’ There was a lot of that this year, probably more than last year, with big players like Sideshow, NECA and Previews Select displaying some really impressive sculpts, prototypes and finished products. And of course, there were plenty of show exclusives on hand, often requiring the more dedicated collectors out there to stand in some pretty long lines for a shot at getting their hands on some of the more limited runs for sale.

The photo gallery below shows off some of the coolest pieces we saw over the span of the show, with a focus, maybe not so surprisingly, on movie related properties. Dig
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Today we take a look at the cosplay element of the 2016 edition of the New York City Comic Con. Love it or hate it, cosplay has become a HUGE part of what makes conventions like this so popular and it has managed to draw in a whole new crowd of convention goers who attend to show off their work and admire that of others. This year, you couldn’t move without bumping into a Deadpool or a Harley Quinn (man oh man there were a LOT of Harley Quinn’s this year). Rick And Morty and Ash were also popular as were traditional standbys like Batman and the Punisher.

And the conventions, NYCC in particular, encourage this. Given that some of the costumes
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First you have to get there. The trains get more and more crowded the closer you get to the Javitz Center and once you get in, no matter how many times you attend, it’s instantly overwhelming.

And then there’s Wonder Woman – everywhere! With the movie coming out soon, DC has the hype machine moving full steam ahead. Not only where there an awesome tribute booth set up on the main floor showing off some great original art (including an awesome piece from the late Darwyn Cooke) from throughout the decades as well as some props for the film, but near the main entrance by the DC Comics booth, there were a bunch of costumes on display. Most of these were from the new movie, but hey, check out the old Lynda Carter duds from the TV show – she was even represented in Jelly Bean form!

Also impressive was the PCS Toys booth. These aren’t really toys per se in that
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Ok, so at the New York Comic Con this weekend, Staz had a big promotional thing going on to hype the debut of Ash Verus The Evil Dead later this month. It was kind of neat the way they did it - they setup a life size replica of 'Ash's Trailer' outside on the inner road way. Basically you got to stand in line for the chance to wander through.... a trailer. But it was still fun. Some pictures from that.

Let’s start in the main hall – here’s where most of the bigger publishers setup shop – they’ll sell you exclusives and hold signings and sometimes Q&A sessions too. There are also a bunch of comic vendors selling back issues, variants, supplies and more.

Check out the displays from Valiant, Dark Horse, IDW, Archie, Oni and Avatar (selling CGC graded perfect ‘10’ copies of some of their own books?)…

…along with booths for Image, Titan and Dynamite.

J. Scott Campbell even sets up his own booth at the con!

The vendors are always interesting to see – a lot of the same guys and gals exhibit here every year but there are sometimes some new ones too. Original artwork, vintage comics from
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Another big part of what makes NYCC such a rad event to go to? Toys! Yeah, there are some dealers who peddle vintage stuff but a large part of the focus is on ‘the new stuff’ and the ‘stuff you want but can’t buy yet.’ There was a lot of that this year, probably more than last year, with big players like Sideshow and Previews Select displaying some really impressive sculpts, prototypes and finished products. And of course, there were plenty of show exclusives on hand, often requiring the more dedicated collectors out there to stand in some pretty long lines for a shot at getting their hands on some of the more limited runs for sale.

Not surprisingly, most of what you’ll see on display is licensed stuff – seen below are a prototype for a pretty neat Link figure and some absolutely jaw droppingly detailed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures alongside some anime and video game pieces.

Back in The Block area, you’ll find some weird stuff along with some ‘bad girl’ figures like Shi and Lady Death, a King Zombie Deadworld figure, a huge American Werewolf In London piece and even a nice Caroline Munroe figure!

Moving right along, dig this complete set of Sailor Moon character figures, a giant monster thing and some Frazetta-inspired
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Following yesterday’s gallery of the show, today we take a look at the cosplay element of the 2015 edition of the New York City Comic Con. Love it or hate it, cosplay has become a HUGE part of what makes conventions like this so popular and it has managed to draw in a whole new crowd of convention goers who attend to show off their work and admire that of others.

And the conventions, NYCC in particular, encourage this. Given that some of the costumes can and do get a little risqué, the people at ReedPOP (the company that organizes the convention) have rightfully instituted a zero tolerance policy in regards to harassment
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Last week New York City once again played host to the biggest pop culture gathering on the East Coast if not the entire country. From Thursday through Sunday fans of movies, TV, gaming, toy collecting, anime, movies and yes, comic books, gathered en masse to celebrate geek culture in all its many forms.

R!S!P! was there and over the next few days we’ll be posting a few different Comic Con galleries – this one is the first, and it’s basically a look at the size and scope of the show, the different vendors and displays that were set up across the entirety of the massive Jacob Javitz Convention Center and just a general overview of what goes on at NYCC and in turn, why it is such an insanely popular event.

Before the show itself opened, you could clearly see from inside the hall just how many people were waiting (with admirable patience and good cheer) to get inside once the doors opened at 10am. Kind of reminds you of something out of Dawn Of The Dead…

Moving around the venue, the main entrance was done up like the gates
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This weekend saw the second installment of ReedPOP’s Special Edition NYC. For those not in the know, this is basically a comic show getting back to its roots. If the massive New York City Comic Convention is the new norm, you can think of SENYC as that con’s younger, more innocent brother as of yet not corrupted by movie star appearances, Walking Dead cast panels or video game announcements. No, SENYC is a comic book convention in the truest sense of the word, the kind you used to go to back in the eighties and nineties, a pre Big Bang Theory universe. The kind you go to…. gasp… for comic books.

Now to be fair, the show this year, held at Pier 94 and not at the Javitz Center as it was in 2014, was bigger. There were a few toy vendors set up and a clothing vendor selling themed socks for some reason. But
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So we did the floor walk, we covered the toys and we posted a bunch of pictures of cosplayers – but what about the comic book presence at NYCC 2014? Shouldn’t that be what it’s all about? Well, it’s easy sometimes for the ‘heart’ of the event to get overshadowed by celebrity appearances, video games, cosplayers and everything else that goes on at a show as big as this one (and for the record, NYCC eclipsed San Diego for the first time, officially making this the biggest con in the country) but yeah, comics are still going strong.

Living legend Neal Adams had a pretty huge booth set up in the main hall area, selling prints and books and commissioned sketches and photos…

…while the Kirby Museum was set up nearby, showing off a few original art pieces penciled for Marvel by the King himself during their Silver Age reign of terror.

Marvel was nearby and not surprisingly, they probably had the biggest presence, at least on the main floor, of any of the publishers in attendance. A lot of what was going on at their booth was related
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Love it or hate it, cosplay has exploded at conventions over the last few years and it’s now just as much a reason for some people to attend as the vendors and guests are. In fact, there are even ‘celebrity cosplayers’ showing up at cons these days, putting in special appearances and doing booth signings. So yeah, even if you don’t want to dress up for the day, you can’t ignore the fact that a whole lot of people do. High fives to Reed Pop for creating a safe and friendly environment for anyone and everyone to do their thing and have fun.

Here’s a few shots that show off the variety of costumes that were making the rounds at NYCC 2014.
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Following up on yesterday’s post in which we basically just walked the floor, this second installment of our four part coverage of the 2014 New York Comic Con is going to focus on one thing and one thing only… TOYS! And hot damn are there a lot of them at the show this year, some of which are being shown for the first time, some of which are show exclusives and some of which are still being worked on. As you’ll see as you scroll through, there are toys of all kinds – licensed properties, original properties, new, vintage, some meant for kids and some for adult collectors. It’s all here. So let’s get to it…

Starting from The Block entrance, here we find some of the more esoteric ‘boutique’ toy makers. Are you in the market for some stuffed organs? That plush blue testicle you’ve always wanted is now ready for you to take him home!

NYC shop Toy Tokyo had their booth set up along the back wall, it was packed all weekend.

Plenty of other oddball vendors and distributors were set up here too…

Spanish toy maker SD Toys had a booth set up displaying some of their licensed stuff, like this ridiculously realistic looking Stan Lee figure!

They were also showing off Bettie Page and Blues Brothers figures alongside Steve McQueen, Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando from The Godfather!

Heading into the main hall from the back, there were some vintage toy vendors set up, offering up everything
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It’s October in New York City again and for thousands upon thousands of pop culture junkies, comic book fans, gamers, toy freaks, cosplayers and movie addicts that means one thing – New York City Comic Con. The annual event, put on by the folks at Reed Pop, is by far the biggest event of its kind on the East Coast and the second biggest convention of its kind in the country. Once again held at (and completely filling) the massive Jacob Javitz Convention Center in Manhattan, the even began Thursday, October 9th, and it continues through tomorrow, October 12th.

Below is the first of four photo galleries highlighting some of the events, dealers, guests and ‘everything else’ that makes this convention worth going to time and time again. Yes, it’s hectic. Yes, there are long lines and ridiculous crowds and YES, someone will inevitably step on your foot every five minutes, but New Yorkers are used to that. More important than that is that the convention, just like last year, remains a positive, friendly and inspiring experience for scores of attendees. Reed Pop does a very good job with crowd control and with keeping things organized and running smoothly and for a convention as big as this one is, NYCC runs pretty damn smoothly.

But enough about that, let’s get down to it. Upon entering the main convention hall, if you look to your left you can’t help but notice the MASSIVE Batman logo hanging over top of the suit display that DC Comics was sponsoring. More on that in a bit but here’s the hanging logo…

A few days ago, just over this past weekend as a matter of fact, pop culture blew a massive load across New York City for the four day New York Comic Con which took place in Manhattan at the Javitz Center from October 10th through the 13th. While these days, big comic conventions like this one and the annual San Diego event focus as much (sometimes more) on movies, toys, television shows and other things that aren’t printed and bound, there was still plenty of four color action to go around.

Panels and discussions were held celebrating everything from cartoons like The Venture Brothers and Bob’s Burgers to the 25th Anniversary of Chucky but so too were there panels on self-publishing, digital comics and the advent of social media. Of course, heavy hitters like Batman and The X-Men got their own forums as well. The show was sold out long in advance this year, which meant that once you stood in line outside to get in you got to stand in line some more to do… well, pretty much anything. But that’s part and parcel with an event like this, it just comes with the territory. Thankfully the staff was generally both polite and helpful and with information booths set up all over the place, it was reasonably easy to find what you wanted to find without too much trouble. This was a well-run show.

There were scores of cosplayers on hand this year, many sporting some pretty ornate costumes, and of course there were vendors and exhibitors as far as the eye could see, selling pretty much everything under the sun. But enough talk, if a picture
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Vinegar Syndrome is, in a sense, the new kid on the block. They haven’t even existed for an entire year yet but have made a splash in exploitation film circles with Blu-ray releases like The Lost Films of H.G. Lewis, Massage Parlor Murders and recently The Telephone Book. They’ve also been issuing double features of horror, drive-in and adult oddities on DVD to the masses hungry for cinematic oddities. In a day and age where many are predicting the death of physical media, it’s refreshing to see a ‘young’ company take chances in a market that is shaky at best.

But there’s more to Vinegar Syndrome than just what makes it to the shelves of your local DVD retailer (if you have one) or to your favorite e-tailer’s site. In the Connecticut based headquarters that they share with sister company Process Blue (a film scanning and restoration facility that has done work for plenty of more established companies like Synapse Films, Troma, Distribpix and Drafthouse Films) there exists an archive, a veritable treasure chest of celluloid. Now, a lot of the titles in the archive are not properties that Vinegar Syndrome will likely ever be able to release, but quite a few of them are. So as we go through this tour, keep in mind that just because you see elements here for a certain title, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re putting it out on a nice, shiny disc any time soon.

So with that out of the way, let’s journey through the hulking warehouse that keeps some of these legitimate cinematic treasures safe and sound, preserved for posterity much
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So on a bright, sunny April day, Distribpix president and all around nice guy Steven Morowitz was kind enough to have a couple of R!S!P!’s nosiest over to ‘the archive’ for a tour. Before we get to that, a bit of background on the company and just what exactly it is we were about to see and are about to share with you, courtesy of the Distribpix Blog:

“Our company has been around since 1965 and during that time DISTRIBPIX was mainly a film broker and small time production company for the NYC theatres and grindhouses. As time went on, Distribpix became a major player and producer of sexploitation films, and then went on to produce some very successful XXX features for the big screen throughout the 70′s and 80′s. Now branded Video-X-Pix, to reflect the Video Age (VHS and BETA) the company became a major video distribution house, representing some of the best producers and directors of that time period. During the 90′s the company was mothballed and sat basically untouched, with some light distribution only.

In 2002, the son of the original founder of Video-X-Pix, decided it was time to re-open its doors, and with a renewed approach and vigor. Basically a 3 tiered plan. First, to continue to preserve and re-issue our amazing library of classics onto DVD. Secondly, to begin to issue, re-mastered versions of our films, from the 35 negatives, as well as add liner notes and director/actor interviews and commentary and other extras (PLATINUM ELITE COLLECTION). Third, we are going to be finally releasing the soft core sexploitation films from the DISTRIBPIX vault.”

One of the cool things about running a website like Rock! Shock! Pop! is the opportunity to meet awesome people from around the world – and sometimes, those people are a quick ten minute drive away. When official greetings from Tromaville arrived, it seemed only natural that we’d accept their gracious offer to tour their facilities in Queens, so off we went, camera in hand and silly grins slapped on our mugs.

Initially, there was concern that the building might not be so easy to spot, but once we turned onto the street where they’re located, those fears were swept aside and it became pretty obvious that there was no reason for concern.

The first thing we saw upon entering the building was a giant ‘hand in a can’ – a prop from the recently completed Return To The Class Of Nuke’em High, just sort of sitting there greeting visitors and employees alike.

From there, it was time to head up the stairs to the offices. The first thing we checked
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